theblether

I don't want to be controversial but - have you ever seen how quickly violence flares in the UK and USA? I can understand some Europeans ( Germans in particular ) not being used to violent flare ups but dear me, try making someone "lose face" in the above mentioned countries and a hospital visit is on the cards. Or maybe the morgue. 

Just now, John Drake said:

 

I would go back to the US if I could live in Hawaii, with a lot of money, and private helicopter to avoid the crowded roads. Otherwise, I would opt for Central or South America before the mainland US. And I most definitely prefer Thailand over all but the Hawaii option. I really don't want to face surly American doctors, lawyers, or other "professionals." Of course, I haven't been back in 13 years, so it's probably changed. But I'll bet it's for the worse.

I'm not daft. I can see why people settle in Thailand. The demented aspect is growling over their shoulder for years thereafter about their home country. To me it shows a fundamental weakness and unhappiness, akin to the guys still going about ancient divorces. Grow up. 

Tonight, no doubt to the amusement of some Brits, I'll take my mother to the bingo and will watch a movie with my dad. Tomorrow, grandkids to the cinema, followed by a visit to Edinburgh area to see old pals and we'll have a Bank Holiday two day drinking session. Paris next, followed by Stockholm, then going to plan, Thailand, and the Singapore Grand Prix. I've got a good life, not trapped by anyone or by circumstance.

If I were American, Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara and San Miguel de Allende would be go to retirement places. San Miguel has a feel of Chiang Mai to it. Guadalajara was exceptional. I'd avoid Rio like the plague but I could easily live in Montevideo, Uruguay. I see Medillin ( Colombia ) locals are turning against "passport bros" with some serious demonstrations taking place. Even the Spanish are taking to the streets to protest tourism. 

We are in the Overrunning Age. Every decent location is bursting at the seams and with greater numbers there's always greater potential conflict. We see that with Thailand now, a lot of the incidents causing comment here are minor but they cause a meltdown among the giant brigade of pontificating balloons. This thread a prime example - KGB, Stasi, UN charters etc. Get a grip, It's Mad Hatter level absurdity.    

6 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I used to live in Glasgow .......... anywhere in Thailand is better than there!

All countries appear to be oppressive these days, at least here it's sunny and oppressive.

If I were really, really rich I'd probably go and live in a castle in Germany.

Your rebuttal is worthless. I have an excellent life in Thailand, and a superb life in Glasgow. That's because I'm not a social incompetent and I value my Scottish family life. 

Thailand is overrun by bitter and twisted Western rejects spouting inane garbage. Your reply is a prime example. 

The tragedy is - you thought it was clever. 

Go to seatguru.com 

Input your flight details 

The website lists seats to select and avoid by colour. 

Also, look at the passengers reviews of the seats. What some people hate you may enjoy. For example, I flew to Rio and the one of the two seats at the back of economy was slated as you couldn't lean against the window to sleep. They forgot to mention ( one wise passenger did ) that you had enough room around that seat to stand, stretch, and go to the galley or WC without disturbing anyone. That seat was excellent. The premium economy seat from Santiago, Chile to Madrid was not as good. 

A wee bit of research goes a long way, so use seatguru.com

11 minutes ago, Prubangboy said:

 

 

First off, TheBlether is one of the greatest internet names in history.

 

-But why not just re-home the dog? It's astonishing to me, but the number of people (many of whom are non-lesbian) who want to "rescue" dogs is limitless.

 

And finally, here's a deeply sad song about a dog taking a bullet that was among Elvis's first recordings -def a weeper.

 

 

No farmer would allow a dog that attacks livestock to live. It's an instant death sentence.

Great photos. I'm always amazed at how comfortable many Thais are handling these guys. A juvenile cobra found its way into the kitchen at my local pub and one of the rescue service guys just walked in and picked it up. The Thai ladies with me set a new land speed record when he offered them a closer look. 

27 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Got one now....English Bull Terrier.....he and the wife dote on each other.....but he has attacked me 5 or 6 times and bitten 3 times.....no way will she get rid of it.

Not a chance it would still be drawing breath after biting me three times. And its capable of biting you mind your conscience when it rag dolls a five year old kid. 

Put it down. 

Yes, I have and the rescue dog was young enough to be retrained. Unfortunately I had top put it down as it developed premature arthritis due to being overfed as a pup, causing immense stress to its developing skeletal structure. 

Noem was not wrong to shoot a dog that worries livestock. I was brought up on farms and with the hunting fraternity. They would have no hesitation in shooting problematic dogs, especially dogs they owned. Some dogs are born mental, certain collies are born defective with a condition called NCL5. This can turn them aggressive. As soon as its noticed they will be shot without hesitation. 

ps - your boast about the English being 1000% more humane ( utter garbage ). What do you think happened to all the racing greyhounds? Dredge the rivers and ponds and you'll find thousands of skeletal remains. 

3 minutes ago, theblether said:

One of my ( very ) close relatives is an HMRC tax investigator. I posted this years ago but now time for a reminder. The government has an internal system called ICE. My relative only needs to submit your national insurance number and it spits out reports. If he adds a last known address and ( god forbid ) a passport number, twenty-three government agencies spit out everything they know about you. 

 

First, I haven't read the whole thread - the Thai government has a report of every time you have entered the kingdom. Do not kid yourself that the British government does not have every single entry you have made to the UK in the last 20 years. Second, the UK government has access to every flight manifest for passengers of any nationality entering or leaving the UK. By the way, some of you will be unaware that the HMRC investigation period has been extended from the previous six years to twenty years now. 

 

Second - HMRC can demand every financial transaction linked to your UK account and the banks cannot deny access to the records. So every time you have used an ATM drawing from a UK bank in Thailand it's recorded and accessible by HMRC. Equally every bank transfer overseas is recorded but no one is that stupid that they don't know that. 

 

Third - DWP are part of the ICE system, that should be obvious to everyone too. 

 

Fourth - one that you likely don't know - council tax records are part of ICE so if you are declaring that you are resident in the UK to bypass the pension freeze it will take the DWP a press of a button to discover your registered address. Another press of the ICE button will uncover your banking records, flight manifests etc. 

 

You cannot defeat ICE. 

 

After the bad news, now the good news. HMRC etc are far too busy to be chasing up every pension claimant. The people that get caught usually have an unexpected change in circumstances ( such as the person who they are registered as living with dying ), or the housing association discovering that an "unknown" person is living in the accommodation, or the "registered person" coming to the attention of social work support due to illness. Otherwise, someone would need to grass you into the authorities. 

 

There have been absurd cases where, for example, people sublet their own council house and use the profit to live in Thailand, then the council catches them out. You must be beyond stupid thinking you'd get away with that. 

 

However - this OP is approaching trolling territory. Mentioning the 55 year old and 61 year old is another absurdity. Who cares? They are nowhere near being affected by the pension freeze. 

 

And this forum has been tortured for decades by people moaning about the pension freeze that knew before they retired it applied in Thailand.  An utter waste of time as the governments ( including Labour ) have no interest in increasing their pension burden for people who choose to live overseas. They are delighted you have made the move and saved them a fortune. 

 

So sad, too bad. 

 

 

ps - I should add - some of you will remember a few years ago that the Thai government requested the UK government validated your income for retirement visa reasons. The UK government flat out refused, they weren't prepared to share that info with another country.

It would have been a catastrophe for many pensioners. First, for those who were cooking the figures to qualify - second, those who were claiming they were resident in the UK. So while some of you spend all day growling like bulldogs chewing a wasp, never forget how close you were to being dragged under the radar by Thai government policy. 

And who knows what the unintended consequences of the new tax policy will be.